Treetopolis' Tangled Truth
by Zigela-4-eva
Summary: Treetopolis' tangled truth is an AU (alternate universe) Where after a period of time since adolescence (6 years) Tree Fu Tom re-discovers Treetopolis. Since the gang are all a little older, and the separation was pretty significant to Tom and Twigs, they're finding it hard to cope with new found situations


_The mid-morning sun shone brightly through the slit in the cotton blue curtains, the harsh golden light danced around the small cube-shaped room, and taunted the eyelids of the single figure, which lay in a bundle of old football duvets, his matching pillow lay on the floor. Groggily, the figure sat up, his bright turquoise eyes still heavy with sleep. His hand fumbled clumsily for the calendar which had scarlet crosses covering most of the creamy paper. The boy looked again, his body had begun to wake up and he was much more aware of his glorious fortune._

' _Oh great!' He internally exclaimed, for the scarlet cross was upon the half term. It took a matter of minutes for him to change out of his baby-blue pajamas, and dress quickly in a simple yellow t-shirt, a pair of denim shorts and his new converse. He had plans to go up town with his mates from school; they would visit McDonalds and have a kick about in the park with the swings. Unfortunately a quick conversation cut off the boys happy fantasies. His best friend Billy Hicker had been 'grounded' for breaking his mother's window whilst practicing for the match with his younger sister. If Billy Hicker wasn't there, Thomas Mendez was fairly confident he wouldn't go either._

 _Letting out a defeated sigh, the teenager stared out across the mass of tangled weeds and ferns that stood high in his back yard. A frown appeared between his eyebrows._

' _Why on earth hasn't mother cut it? No wonder we get ants and cockroaches in the house! I completely forgot we even had such a large garden! Besides – the park has a much better turf!'_

 _He was still frowning over his back yard jungle when he heard a distinctly Scottish accent in his ear._

" _But Tom! With your garden overgrown the tree is MUCH safer!"_

 _But the room was empty. The teenager shook his head. It sounded so clear, yet there was no-one in sight. Certainly no one from Scotland around! So why on earth did that voice pop into his head? Still muddled, the boy went down to make himself breakfast._

 _A plump, middle-aged lady with dark hair was hanging washing on the line, and she smiled when he told her that he'd have to stay at home due to his friend's absence._

" _Well I need to go shopping for some groceries – your fathers eaten nearly everything in the cupboards" She sighed with disappointment. Her son grinned guilty. It wasn't ALL his father fault the chocolate box had been raided of Cadbury's flakes …_

 _Thomas' mother wiped her hands on her apron and rolled her eyes playfully._

" _Well whilst I'm out you might want to uhh … give the garden a bit of a prune." She tittered at the state of the weeds and the overgrown grass, and laughed when her son groaned._

" _It'll do you some good!" She exclaimed as she hit him lightly on the head with a clothes peg before rushing into the hall to retrieve her car keys._

" _And for heavens sake Tom! Don't forget to clean up all your old stuff out there!" Were the last words she yelled before she slammed the front door and trotted down the path towards the purple MASDA._

 _Grumbling, but with nothing better to do, the boy picked up a rusty pair of shears and began his work. About half an hour later, he began to think that the work would never end._

' _We're never going to finish! We're going to be ploughing forever!' The same Scottish voice came back into his head. Tom stuck his finger in his ear and waggled it. He had to get the voice out of his head – or it was therapist time. The shears made quick work of pruning and snipping the overgrowth. Sighing, he picked up a spade. Sweat trickled down his back, but he knew his mother was only trying to help him. He had nothing better to do._

 _The spade hit something hard under a particularly overgrown piece of moss. Getting down on his knees in the soil, the boy scrabbled around under the moss and pulled out a soil-covered ...belt? It had a faded amber stone in the middle, which looked impressively genuine. Tom searched hard in his memory. It defiantly meant something. A sort of drawing power seemed to sing from the stone, and he felt a gust of wind blowing from the other end of the garden. He gasped, and turned quickly on his converse before speeding up to his room._

 _Tom held the precious belt in his hands, and fought to remember the last time he had visited the magical land. Ah, there was a big … festival of some sort – as usual. But that was the very same day his bratty little cousin had come noising around. Ah yes, he thought the belt was dress up and broke the attachment. The teenager gingerly felt the broken seams. He had gotten angry with his cousin and started a little play fight – forgetting the shed and had been rushed to hospital with minor concussion._

 _The boy felt through his thick dark hair for the stitches and winced at the memory._

 _He hadn't found the belt again and the magical world had seemed more like a child's fantasy. But he was so sure it was real. He HAD to find out! With his parents out, now seemed like the perfect time to check whether that magical world truly had been real after all. The only problem was his broken belt._

 _It was a long shot, but with a few nifty snips, a wobbly stitching session and some spare elasticized material, the belt fitted once more. He only hoped it was enough. Forgetting to close the door (an old childish habit) he leapt down towards the furthest point of the garden – far away from his house. The magical tree was at the opening to the dark forest behind it. This bit of course had not been pruned and was worse for bushes and bristles. Thomas Mendez gulped, wondering whether he truly wanted to go ahead and find the 'magic'. The tree he believed would transport him remained as strong and magnificent as ever, and still seemed to swirl with mystery and enchantment, that gave the boy a feeling of hope. If he could now remember how to get back to the world … and he prayed his belt would still work!_

 _Left … right … stomp, push! Nope …_

 _Push, stomp … left … right … nothing …_

 _Oh come on! The series of relatively simple moves had vanished. In despair, Thomas looked up at the tree through his blurry eyes._

" _PLEASE" He muttered. As if by ironic – or perhaps it simply was – magic, the sequence came back to him._

 _Crossed his arms, right, left, crossed arms again, spin!_

 _The world around him grew, or it was him himself that was shrinking. His body had the same tingling rush of excitement that he remembered from all those years back - but without the crucial costume – mainly his wings – he was fortunate to land on the bark, only scraping his knees a little._

 _He still managed to scramble up the bark towards the flatter bark. A wide grin spread across his face. This truly was Treetopolis as he remembered it. The streets remained brightly decorated with bunting and fireflies as they had been. His veins pulsing with new found adrenaline, the 16 year old raced over the branches, inhaling the magical air. His strength restored, the boy pelted towards the streets, where sprites stopped and stared at the new-old stranger in their midst. Tom didn't know where he running, but he knew he back._

 _He rounded a little ally a little too fast and had to slowly back away._

" _I – I didn't see you there!" He stammered as he pelted, blushing, from the entwined sprite couple. Fearing they were following him, Tom pressed his back against another sprite den, adrenaline pulsing through him. It was still Treetopolis, it was still good. He clutched his heart and side, sweat trickling through his marigold t-shirt. He felt truly alive._

 _He began to fantasize the new Treetopolis in all the years, and remember his old friends. The musha's would no doubt be causing mischief; Treetog was probably far more powerful than before! Perhaps she had a new tower too! Tom decided he would see Treetog first. Zigzoo was no doubt still hard at work – perhaps he achieved some other of his dreams! The tree frog had always mentioned he wanted a family … and what about Ariela? Obviously running the ranch, Squirmtum at his mining. Well, these were all guesses. And now he understood!_

" _Tom? Could that really be you?"_

 _The Scottish accent that had been in his head all morning came clear as crystal, though it sounded matured._

 _Tom's eyes shot open and he looked up clearly into the chocolate brown eyes of Twigs Sprite._


End file.
